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Recovery after stoma pouch removal

Hello,
Last year (July) my father had surgery where they removed part of his colon with tumor. Drs put a bag and recently it has been removed. How long does it take to fully recover and attain relatively normal bowel movements after the ostomy removal.

Hi thats good news that he got the reversal. from my understanding depends on how much bowel was removed to begin with. And after the trauma of surgery again it takes quite awhile I know some people here had the reversal and hopefully will be able to let you know their experiences -they are out there it just may take some time to get a response. just wanted to acknoweledge your post. sorry I cant be of more help. Hopethings are back to normal for him soon.

Hi remy,
the recovery is usually fairly rapid. Patient initially tend to have hard stools initially. But do give him a lot of water, and adequate roughage so stool formation is good. Also, if they have removed the rectum is prior surgery (I dont know where the primary tumour was), then the frequency of stools may be slightly higher, maybe a few times in a day, as the rectal reservoir is absent.

I had my reversal done April 4. I take a packet of Metamucil twice a day which keeps the stool at about the right consistency. I wear a diaper in case I have a movement which I cannot control. Haven't had much trouble with that problem. However, when I have to go, it is good to be close to a toilet. Seems like when I stand after sitting for a while I get the urge but don't always have to go. I go through the night without having to have a BM. Sometimes I have a series of BM's that occur between breakfast and lunch but not always. Also sometimes I have a series of BM's between 8 and 9 in the evening. The afternoon's are pretty good. I believe there is a procedure for bowel training posted on this forum you might look for it.

I had about 3 inches removed just above the rectum.

I have had a lot of other problems that have caused me more problems than BM's. About a month after the first operation I had a complete kidney failure caused by dehydration (not drinking enough water). This problem still plagues me. I have diabetes which is still not under control but we are getting there. After the last operation I had a bad case of edema and I now have some urinary incontinence.

Thank you so much judway.
Sorry to hear about other complications. my father too has other complications, they placed urinary catheter since the surgery last July, and because of it he had infections and was on antibiotics every once in while since the first surgery. He has been having higher body temp since mid April and lots of antibiotics that don't help. Drs cannot figure out where the temp comes from.
Anyways, thank you and all the best.

Thats a tough one -higher body tems in cancer patients could be so many things the cancer itself, the drug reactions, the catheter, even nonspecific from cancer could be teeth infections(teeth tend to be effected from chemo/radiation does he have bad allergies? This year has been wworse for people who have allergies -they may be overlooking something simple like sinus infections etc.. whatever it is the underlying cause of high body temps is infection somewhere and it may take awhile before they figure that one out.-Did you ask them to tell you when you should really get concerned enough to take him to the hospital should it become too high? are they keeping track daile? what did the doctor tell you besides they arent sure where its comming from? did he have any blood tranfusions wit the operation-that can happen too. Hope he gets some relief soon.

Sheila,
As far as mri shows he doesn't have any cancer visible (yet), but since they put catheter he had infections, and no he is not on chemo or radiation, no bad teeth, no sinus, nothing else just this foley catheter and complications from it. They tried to remove it twice, but because of his incontinence they had to put it back, he wasn't able to regain control over the urge during the last time he tried. Now before the reversal, they admitted him with the high body temp(that developed ~10 days before hospital admission, before that he was on heavy antibiotics regime an that was able to reduce bacteria count a lot but not I guess enough to rid him of high temperature), and they gave him antibiotics, but it would go away for half a day or so and in the evening would come back. Before the reversal many tests were done (ultrasound, blood work showed slightly increased white blood cells, and bacteria in urine), and no antibiotics were able to remove the bacteria causing the fever. They didn't tell him anything specific (my mom and sister take care of him, while i am here in US) regarding recovery from reversal, for catheter they told him to replace it in a week or so, he has had catheter replacements anyhoo, and so far that seem to be the only infection 'reduction'. And on a top of that he is going through recovery from ostomy reversal.
Thank you again Sheila.
Best
remy